SOUND OFF: The scent of perfume isn't everyone's idea of good news
| Monday, Nov 07 2011 02:50 PM
Last Updated Monday, Nov 07 2011 02:50 PM
The Californian welcomes your comments and suggestions. To offer your input by phone, please call 661-395-7649 and leave your comments in a voice-mail message or send an email to soundoff@bakersfield.com. Please include your name and phone number. Phone numbers and addresses won't be published.
Reader: Just wondering why we, in the "Garden of the Sun" (Arvin) only get 1 or 2 of the ad inserts on Sunday. Usually, we get Target and Rite Aid. Sometimes we will get Sears or JC Penny.
I'm wondering if all of Bakersfield is in the same situation. I'd sure like to see ads for Office Max, Office Depot, Best Buy, Kohl's, just to name a few.
This issue is the primary reason that I discontinued my subscription.
Just "wonderin'."
-- Jack Anderson
Advertising Director John Wells responds:
Jack I would love to distribute all the ads that run in the Sunday Bakersfield Californian to every home delivery subscriber.
Unfortunately this is a business decision made by our large insert clients. They are trying to reduce costs everywhere, so subsequently they have been reducing their distribution areas.
Your best bet is to make your concerns known to the local store managers where you shop and let them know you want their insert inside The Bakersfield Californian. These clients are told regularly by our sales representatives that people in Kern County will drive much farther than other metropolitan areas to do their shopping. It seems to make a larger impact if they hear it directly from their customers.
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Reader: Recently you stated that the Associated Press was an unbiased news source.
Was that a misprint ?
-- Marvin Pritchett
Arthur: It was not a misprint. Do I agree with everything the AP writes? No. There are places here and there where I would edit their stories differently. But I don't consider them a biased news source.
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Reader: I have a minor complaint and don't know which of the name to choose to write to, other than Louis Henry ;-)
We have a sensitivity to strong odors such as perfume. I know it's Bakersfield, so get over it. Well this is being written to let you know that the perfume insert in the Macy's ad is VERY annoying and we have to pull that ad and trash it before we have a reaction to it. You can tell the ad is there as soon as you remove the paper from the wrapper.
We had this same problem in Washington and notified the Everett Herald of the concern and they pulled those kind ads from the paper.
I know it is revenue you need badly but if someone who is more sensitive than we are has a reaction to one of the inserts, you may need a LOT of revenue.
Just a suggestion.... Pull those stinky perfume ads.
Regards
-- Chuck Jensen, Bakersfield
Circulation Director Michael Boody responds:
This came up last year when we started getting close to Christmas. We were able to respond to perfume-sensitive subscribers by offering to redeliver a perfume-insert-free paper.
It's difficult for us to flag certain customers for non-perfume inserts, although we can try, but we certainly can bring them a new paper without the inserts if we get a call.
We're already working on Chuck's delivery.
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Arthur: And in the "miscellaneous" mailbag....
Some readers didn't like a phrase used by Lois Henry in her column last Sunday. She wrote that PG&E "screwed the pooch" when it failed to address a customer concern adequately.
An online site called Wiktionary says the term was first documented in the early "Mercury" days of the US space program -- almost 50 years ago. It came from a man who helped design the astronauts' space suits. The phrase is actually a bastardization of an earlier, more vulgar term.
But the term didn't enter the popular lexicon until Tom Wolfe used it in his book about the space program, The Right Stuff, where it was used to describe a supposed mistake by astronaut Gus Grissom.
It is defined as to screw up or to fail in dramatic and ignominious fashion. We think it's printable in a family newspaper.
Another reader got worked up about our Page 1 index. We've cleaned up his remarks somewhat:
Reader: I've called several times and I'm calling again about the TV Guide that you look at in the evening. You have to get the whole stinking paper out to look at the TV Guide. Why can't you just make it one page front and back instead of having to mess with this paper?
Also, the front page where you have The Bakersfield Californian and below you have Local, Nation, Sports. Half the time you have what page the TV Guide is on and half the time you don't. Why can't you be consistent and have it all the time?
Just about everybody uses the TV Guide, so if you put the TV Guide pages in there you can go straight to it instead of ruffling through the paper to find it. I don't know why you can't be consistent with things. It's ridiculous! I mean, if people are dropping the paper like crazy, I can understand why. (Expletive deleted.)
Arthur: This was an anonymous complaint but the reader, while venting,makes a good point. The TV pages now should be listed every weekday in the Page 1 index. This feedback forum is designed to give readers a way to voice criticisms and compliments or ask questions about news coverage. Your questions -- which may be edited for space -- are answered each Sunday by Executive Editor John Arthur. Sound Off
